How are you using knowledge of your strengths and skills to create your future?
Create your life and career path from your strengths and high level skills. I find a personal strengths or “valuable skills” focus to be particularly valuable in life if we can build upon and use them in conjunction with our passionate interests. You see, you may have passionate interests that you’re not particularly strong or skilled in. For example, I loved basketball for years, but I wasn’t very good at it. Bummer. Making it to the NBA isn’t a path I should create. Luckily there are many intersections Ultimately, you want to identify those areas of interest that align closely with your strengths. Identify at least five of your strengths, without judgement. Come up with them quickly. What are you most valuable skills? Think about those things you’re skilled at doing. Close your eyes, and see what comes to mind. Now go for 10.
For me, those strengths come out when thinking about the experiences we looked at earlier in the Create Your Path program and articles. I remember specifically the strength or skill of group facilitation came to mind. Keep reflecting on and going back to those key life experiences you’ve already had to unearth your strengths from them. In most of your peak life moments you will see you were wielding your strengths and most valuable skills. If you reflect on the big picture of many life moments, maybe you see some strengths you utilized from your own hero’s journey that used again and again.
Just like with the passionate interests activity, it is not enough to create your path just based on what you are good at. You can be skilled at or strong in a particular area, but if you are not passionately interested in it, you will not feel happy or satisfied. For instance, my first job out of college was as an account executive. It was a sales position. I was great at it and getting promoted rapidly and exceeding exceeding expectations. But I was not passionate about it. Nor did I feel that doing what I did was mattering in a meaningful way for society as a whole. So I created my path in a different direction. It is strengths + passionate interests + values! One is not enough! Creating your path is integrating!
This article is taken from the online video-based program Create Your Path. Sign up for a free sample workshop from the program here, see details on the full program at InnovateYourself.com, and see other programs, speeches, and more at DarinEich.com